PASADENA – In 20 years of opinionated wrangling over public art projects in the city, there’s been no argument about the what, where and why of public art in Northwest Pasadena.

That’s because there hasn’t been any.

Since 1988, developers in the Northwest have been exempt from the city’s requirement that they donate 1 percent of their projects’ value to pay for public art works on-site or elsewhere.

“The thought process 20 years ago was trying to make it easier for developments to occur, and to reduce associated fees and costs,” said Councilman Chris Holden, whose district includes Northwest neighborhoods. “The city probably viewed it not so much for aesthetic qualities…as trying to figure out how to jump-start the economy.”

Now it’s time to bring the Northwest back into sync with the city’s other redevelopment areas in downtown and Old Pasadena, said Charles Nelson, chairman of the city’s Northwest Commission.

“We have had some concern about the art component in the Northwest, as opposed to the rest of the city,” Nelson said. “We want to be consistent with the General Plan … We don’t want to look different and apart – we’re one city.”

A city staff report recognizes the “inequity” of arts and culture projects in the city since the Northwest Enterprise Zone was removed from the downtown and Old Pasadena redevelopment areas when they started in 1988.

Without the 1 percent exemption, city figures show, in the past 10 years the 13 Northwest Enterprise Zone developments would have contributed $225,000, or paid for 13 public art projects.

“There’s a feeling in the Northwest community that they have 20 years to make up for,” said Rochelle Branch, the city’s manager of cultural affairs.

In downtown and Old Pasadena the 1 percent public art contribution is triggered by $500,000 of construction, but elsewhere in the city the threshold is 25,000 feet of new construction, Branch said.

The staff recommendation to the City Council will be that the $500,000 trigger should apply to all of Northwest Pasadena, not just the redevelopment zone, she said.

Support for removing the public art exemption also has come from the Northwest and Lincoln Avenue project area committees and the city’s Arts and Culture Commission.

“Twenty years ago the rationale was to encourage development,” commission Chairman Dale Oliver said. “In essence it’s been a 1 percent subsidy … and there is a desire to increase our options.”

A survey for the city’s “Cultural Nexus” plan, started in 2004 and billed as “an action plan for Pasadena’s cultural economy,” showed a community desire for public art throughout the city, Oliver said.

“One thing that came out of the Cultural Nexus – really a canvassing and very articulate, detailed and significant effort that took place four or five years ago – showed that the clear desire over the whole community is accessibility, and it means just that: all residents should have access and be in as close proximity to art and culture as possible,” he said.

Holden said development in Northwest has tended to be smaller-scale than in the other redevelopment zones, mainly affordable housing, infill and similar projects.

In the Northwest pipeline is the long-stalled Heritage Square project – likely to be 80 units of senior affordable housing with a later phase of commercial or mixed-use space on three acres – that would the largest in many years.

“I think we probably should be thinking now about different ways art can really beautify the community, and having that part of the equation will be good,” said Holden. “Going forward, I think there’s the opportunity to try to figure out how to incorporate some type of art component.”

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